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Fender American Professional II Stratocaster

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Electric Guitar

Fender American Professional II Stratocaster

Fender · American Professional II Stratocaster

Price: 12 EUR – 2.803 EUR

Price history 04.09.2026 12.09.2026
Cheapest seen Most expensive seen

Availability: 9/10 (Common)

Fender's current top-of-the-line, USA-built regular-production Stratocaster: alder body, Deep C maple neck with rolled fingerboard edges and a sculpted heel, and a set of three V-Mod II single coils individually voiced per position with different Alnico magnet blends. A push-push switch adds two extra pickup combinations beyond the classic five, and a treble-bleed circuit keeps highs intact when the volume is rolled back.

Where available? Go to the best price – 12 EUR About this instrument

About the Fender American Professional II Stratocaster

The defining engineering idea behind the V-Mod II pickup set is that all three single coils are not identical units wound to one spec, but individually voiced for their position: a blend of Alnico II and III magnets in the neck pickup, Alnico II and V in the middle, and pure Alnico V in the bridge. That's a deliberate departure from the one-size-fits-all single-coil sets many cheaper Stratocasters still use, aimed at giving each position its own balanced character rather than a compromise average.

The neck itself carries several small, connected refinements rather than one headline feature: a Deep C profile that sits between the chunkier 1950s/60s carves and thinner modern shapes, fingerboard edges that are rolled rather than left sharp, and a neck heel that's been sculpted and paired with an asymmetrical beveled neck plate specifically to make the upper frets easier to reach - three details that individually sound minor but together change how the guitar feels in the hand from the first note.

Electronics go beyond the standard Strat layout in two ways. A treble-bleed circuit, built from surface-mount components on a small PCB under the volume pot, keeps the top end from getting muddy as the volume is turned down - useful for guitarists who ride the volume knob between rhythm and lead tones rather than switching amp channels. And one of the two tone controls doubles as a push-push switch that activates the neck pickup alongside whatever the five-way selector is already set to, unlocking two pickup combinations - neck-plus-bridge among them - that a standard Stratocaster switch simply can't reach.

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Sound character of the Fender American Professional II Stratocaster

Because each V-Mod II pickup is voiced individually rather than sharing one blanket spec, the three positions have genuinely distinct personalities rather than just different output levels. The neck pickup, on its Alnico II/III blend, carries extra size and a low-mid glow that reviewers specifically singled out as strong for drop tunings - unusual territory for a vintage-voiced single coil. The bridge, on pure Alnico V, comes across as quick, responsive and spanky, the classic biting Strat bridge tone rather than a softened compromise.

Acoustically and amplified alike, the set is described as carrying real chime and sparkle alongside noticeably improved sustain and resonance compared with the original V-Mod pickups - the kind of detail that shows up most clearly to players switching directly between the two generations rather than as an obvious characteristic on its own.

Bright Crisp Resonant Scooped mids

What owners of the Fender American Professional II Stratocaster say

Reviewers who tested this guitar against the original American Professional consistently describe it as a positive, meaningful evolution rather than a repackaging - the pickup redesign in particular draws praise as a real improvement in clarity and resonance over the already well-regarded first-generation V-Mod set. The combination of small ergonomic changes (rolled edges, sculpted heel, beveled plate) is treated as more than the sum of its parts, changing how the guitar feels rather than just how it looks on a spec sheet.

The one consistent critical note concerns the extended switching options: the neck-plus-bridge combination unlocked by the push-push control is appreciated for single notes and soul/jazz voicings but flagged as capable of turning muddy in full chords - a genuine trade-off of the added flexibility rather than a flaw that undermines the core instrument.

Playability & handling of the Fender American Professional II Stratocaster

Reviewers describe the Deep C neck as sitting deliberately between two eras of Fender neck-carving - fuller than a thin modern profile, without the true bulk of a genuine vintage 1950s or early-60s carve - and the rolled fingerboard edges add a broken-in feel right out of the box rather than requiring months of play to soften. Combined with the 9.5-inch radius, one reviewer described the feel as giving the tactile illusion of a more rounded vintage board despite the flatter modern radius underneath.

The sculpted heel and beveled neck plate make a genuine, testable difference in upper-fret access rather than being a cosmetic tweak - reviewers specifically noted comfortable playing above the 12th fret with no fret-out during aggressive bending. The one recurring criticism is tonal rather than physical: blending the neck and bridge pickups together through the push-push switch can sound muddy in dense chord voicings, even though the same combination works well for single-note lines.

Recommended accessories & strings for the Fender American Professional II Stratocaster

At the standard 25.5-inch Fender scale, .009-.042 or .010-.046 sets both suit the guitar depending on preferred tension. The treble-bleed circuit rewards players who actually use the volume knob as a performance tool rather than leaving it at 10 - it's one of the few Stratocaster features that makes volume-swelling and cleaning up dirty tones by hand genuinely practical rather than something that just dulls the sound.

The push-push neck-plus-bridge combination is specifically suited to soul and jazz-leaning clean or lightly compressed tones according to reviewers, so a compressor pedal and a clean amp with good headroom make more sense here than a high-gain setup. For players who mainly want the classic quack-y in-between positions two and four, nothing about this guitar's electronics changes that familiar territory - the extra switching options are additive, not a replacement for the core Strat sound.

Technical data for the Fender American Professional II Stratocaster

Type Solid-body electric guitar, double cutaway, bolt-on neck
Production Fender American Professional II series, launched 2020, built in Corona, California, USA
Body Alder (select finishes use Roasted Pine), gloss urethane finish
Neck Maple, bolt-on, Deep C profile, rolled fingerboard edges, Super-Natural satin finish, sculpted heel with asymmetrical beveled neck plate
Fingerboard Rosewood or maple, 9.5 in. radius
Frets / scale 22 narrow tall frets; 25.5 in. scale
Nut Bone, approx. 1.685 in. width
Pickups 3x V-Mod II Stratocaster single-coils, individually voiced per position: Alnico II/III blend (neck), Alnico II/V blend (middle), Alnico V (bridge)
Controls Master volume with treble-bleed circuit, 2 tone controls (one wired as a push-push switch adding the neck pickup to whatever the selector is set to), 5-way pickup selector switch giving 7 total combinations with the push-push engaged
Bridge 2-point synchronized tremolo with cold-rolled steel sustain block
Weight No widely documented factory or owner-reported figure found for this specific model
Predecessor Replaces the original American Professional series (2017-2020), itself the successor to the American Standard Series (1987-2016); key upgrades over the first American Professional generation are the position-specific V-Mod II pickups, rolled fingerboard edges, sculpted neck heel, cold-rolled steel tremolo block, and push-push switching

Price history for the Fender American Professional II Stratocaster

Cheapest seen: 12 EUR  ·  Most expensive seen: 2.803 EUR

2.803 EUR12 EUR 04.09.2026 04.09.2026 12.09.2026
Cheapest seen Most expensive seen

The history of the Fender American Professional II Stratocaster

This guitar sits at the end of a three-generation lineage inside Fender's own USA flagship tier. The American Standard Series held that position for nearly three decades, from 1987 until it was retired in January 2017 in favour of the American Professional Series - the first generation to carry Tim Shaw-designed V-Mod pickups, a treble-bleed circuit, a Modern Deep-C neck, and Fender's Elite-style moulded hardshell case with TSA-approved latches.

The American Professional II, launched in 2020, is a genuine second iteration rather than a cosmetic refresh: the pickups were redesigned into the current position-specific V-Mod II set, the neck gained rolled edges and the sculpted heel, the tremolo picked up a cold-rolled steel sustain block, and the electronics gained the push-push switching this guitar carries. Reviewers who compared both generations directly described the changes as a meaningful step up rather than a marketing refresh, at only a modest price increase over the original American Professional - which is a genuinely unusual thing for a manufacturer to achieve on a guitar already positioned as its own regular-production flagship.

About Fender as a manufacturer

Fender's Corona, California plant builds the American Professional II series as the company's standard-production USA flagship, sitting above the Mexican-made Player line and below the fully custom-order Custom Shop. When Fender launched this series in 2020, its own marketing framed the American Professional lineage as the world's most played electric guitars - a claim about aggregate ownership across the whole tier rather than any specific artist endorsement of this exact model.

What that framing reflects is Fender's actual commercial strategy for this price point: rather than chasing headline signature-artist attention the way boutique and Custom Shop guitars do, the American Professional II is built to be the default choice for working musicians and serious hobbyists who want a genuinely USA-made, professionally specified Stratocaster without either the cost of a Custom Shop build or the compromises of the Mexican-made tiers below it.

Notable players & recordings featuring the Fender American Professional II Stratocaster

No verified professional endorsement or documented stage use ties a specific touring artist to the American Professional II Stratocaster by name - Fender markets the tier on aggregate popularity rather than individual signature association, and the Stratocaster players usually cited as genre-defining (Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Clapton, Gilmour) all played vintage or Custom Shop instruments rather than this regular-production line.

What's honestly true instead is structural: this is the guitar Fender positions as the serious, USA-built choice for working musicians who need Custom Shop-adjacent build quality without a Custom Shop budget - session players, touring backline techs and gigging professionals are its real, if less individually documented, audience.

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